Prefessional golfer Ben Hogan traveled 2,000 miles to Keller Golf Course from Ft. Worth, TX for the St. Paul Open in July 1937. Hogan had to park his car down below the clubhouse and carry his own bag to the locker room. "Who is this player 'Schultz?' I never heard of him," said Hogan, referring to a parking reservation sign for Emil Schulz, Ramsey County surveyor in charge of the course. (Pioneer Press file photo)

July 23, 1943 photo of members of Keller club weed out traps. From top of truck left to right: Fred Tyvoll, Ed Vollhaber, Dick Priebe, Norm Vigoren, Howard Pousette, Ed Muggenberg, John Lofgren, Al Snell, and Arnie Peterson. Behind the wheel of the truck is Herb Houchin. (Pioneer Press file photo)

Had Keller Golf Course been planned just two years later than it was, it very likely never would have been built at all.

When it opened to great fanfare on May 29, 1929, Keller was a manifestation of that last burst of golf euphoria at the end of the 1920s, when private clubs had proliferated around Minnesota and seemingly every town of any size had built or was building, at minimum, a nine-hole course. A year later, the stock market had crashed, the Great Depression had begun and golf went into a downward spiral from which it would not recover until after World War II.

The golf boom had really begun before the first World War, when both Minneapolis and St. Paul raced to open municipal courses to satisfy the public’s growing demand for places to play the game that had not existed in Minnesota before 1893. Minneapolis opened Glenwood Golf Course (now Wirth) in 1916; a year later, St. Paul opened Phalen Golf Course. Golf course expansion greatly accelerated in 1920, and by 1926, the metro area’s two original municipal courses had been joined by Highland Park in St. Paul and Columbia, Armour (now Gross) and Meadowbrook in Minneapolis.

Yet the public still couldn’t get enough of the game. St. Paul was forging ahead with plans to build a course at Como Park, and Minneapolis had another course planned at Lake Hiawatha. However, the conditions on these courses were spotty, at best, compared with the private clubs. Only Armour had grass greens in the mid-’20s, while the rest sported sand greens that needed to be smoothed with a board after each group finished putting.

It was former St. Paul Mayor and then-Ramsey County Commissioner Herbert P. Keller who was the driving force behind building a county-funded 18-hole golf course with the best of everything: grass greens, lush fairways, demanding bunkers and significant elevation changes to test even the most skilled players. As the first native-born mayor of St. Paul (1910-14), Keller had been known as a fierce guardian of the public purse strings. But as Ramsey County commissioner in a time of relative plenty, Keller was determined to give his constituents the finest public playground in the state — and some would say in the nation.

The county owned a tract of land east of Keller Lake and north of Phalen Park — hilly, semi-wooded land that Keller had roamed as a boy — but had no immediate plans for its use. Ramsey County engineer Paul Coates was asked to survey the land and suggest a use for it. “The variable topography of the surface of this tract immediately impressed one with its suitability for golf,” Coates wrote.

Keller was quick to bring the idea to the State Legislature, which authorized the course in 1927. The county bought the final 94 of the 112 acres necessary to build the course on September 1, 1927. The stone-and-wood clubhouse was designed by St. Paul municipal architect Clarence Wigington, the first African-American to hold such a position. The final cost of the course and clubhouse was $108,000, or about $1.1 million in today’s dollars.

A FIRST-TIME DESIGNER

It was the era of the big-name golf course architect, as evidenced by the six Minnesota courses designed or renovated by Donald Ross between 1915 and 1927, as well as three state courses designed by Seth Raynor and two by A.W. Tillinghast. But despite its ambitions, the new Ramsey County course was a muni with a limited budget. Keller gave the job of designing the course to Coates, who was a neophyte at laying out golf courses but became a passionate student of the craft.

Coates was 39 years old at the time and had been playing the game for just two years, after taking lessons from White Bear Yacht Club pro Tom Vardon at Vardon’s indoor range in downtown St. Paul. To prepare himself for the important design job, he began traveling around the country, visiting noted courses on both the East and West Coast, and visiting Ross at his headquarters in Pinehurst, N.C.

When he returned from his travels, Coates made a complete topographical survey of the property and constructed a two-foot contour map. He then built a clay model of the acreage and cut celluloid templates of different holes from tee to green to the same scale as the map. He experimented with different routings, finally finding a satisfying layout in his 15th attempt. The first hole (now No. 10) was a long par 4 that extended eastward from the clubhouse, and the second hole was a shorter par 4 that returned to the clubhouse. The tee for the par-5 third hole was located behind the clubhouse.

“The double loop of the first (now back) nine is of considerable assistance, not only in starting play, but in checking in the public player,” Coates said at the time. “It has an added value in halved 18-hole matches in that the play may continue to the 22nd hole without being more than one hole distance from the clubhouse.”

Coates also designed a large area for a caddie court and shelter house with a reading room. It was to be supplied with outdoor playground equipment and a Boy Scout corner “so their time will be completely filled with things worthwhile.” An outdoor pool and tennis courts originally were planned, but the failing economy apparently scuttled that idea.

Commissioner Keller hit the ceremonial first tee shot at 1 p.m. on May 29, 1929. The course was enthusiastically dedicated by St. Paul Mayor Laurence Hodgson, who 30 years earlier, writing in the St. Paul Dispatch as columnist “Larry Ho,” had referred to golfers as “dude, idlers, fools and degenerates.”

HELLO, PGA TOUR PROS

Green fees were 75 cents the first year, but the course lost money. The public perceived it as too difficult, forcing Coates to defend it in the press. He didn’t have to defend it to the Professional Golfers Association or the United States Golf Association, however. Both organizations quickly placed tournaments at Keller — the 1930 St. Paul Open and the 1931 U.S. Public Links Championship.

At the time of its opening, Keller had attained a consensus ranking as one of the best public courses in the country. Placing the inaugural St. Paul Open at Keller just a month after the U.S. Open was played at Interlachen Country Club in Edina, however, was a gamble undertaken by both the PGA and the St. Paul Jaycees. Nevertheless, golf-crazy Minnesotans turned out in good numbers to support the pro tournament in St. Paul. Despite tournament cancellations in Chicago and Lincoln, Neb., the following summer, the St. Paul Open defied the bad economy and kept going throughout the Depression.

The pro tour was in its infancy at the time, and the “$10,000 Open,” as it was dubbed in its first year, was responsible for many innovations in the operation and coverage of such an event. The signal corps of the third infantry at Fort Snelling offered the use of army-field telephones for communication from the course to the press office. Eight telephones were stationed over the course, and runners carried the scores between stations. On the eve of the tournament, Coates invented a new motorized scoreboard for the first hole that involved a sewing machine motor and 100 feet of bicycle chain that would keep each group’s score, relative to par, moving along a 50-foot board that was marked with holes 1 to 18.

The first St. Paul Open was won by future Golden Valley Golf Club head pro “Lighthorse” Harry Cooper. (Cooper would win the event three times, causing it to be jokingly referred to as “Cooper’s Annuity.”) Other big names who showed up for the inaugural event included former U.S. Open winners Walter Hagen, Gene Sarazen and Tommy Armour.

Hagen was well-known for his cavalier attitude toward punctuality. On Friday morning, the press was looking for The Haig, but he was nowhere to be found at 10 a.m., or 11 a.m. Just before his 11:15 tee time, Hagen came screeching up to the clubhouse in a taxi. He located his caddie and his clubs, asked a few questions about the course, then teed off as though he’d been there for hours. The following year, Hagen was up to his old tricks, arriving an hour late each of the first two days, which irked his playing partners, including local hero Les Bolstad. Hagen shot a 2-under-par 286 for fourth place and $1,000 in the inaugural Open, and he pocketed $1,250 the second year for finishing in a tie for third.

Sarazen tied for fifth in 1930, thanks to a disastrous triple bogey on the par-3 13th hole (now the fourth hole, after the nines were reversed in the 1970s.) The following year, he was playing the same hole with Hagen when his ball once again missed the green and rolled down an 18-foot embankment. After two failed tries to recover, Sarazen took an angry whack at his ball. It popped onto the green and rolled into the cup for a bogey 4.

“Pretty tough going when you have to niblick into the cup for a 4 on a par-3 hole,” Sarazen commented to the crowd, as reported in Amateur Golfer magazine. Hagen responded, “Well, if you can make the cup without ever seeing the pin, I ought to be able to sink this one.” Hagen then drained his 20-footer for a birdie. In the ensuing years, the story developed that Sarazen took a huge number on that hole, tore up his scorecard and walked off the course, but there is no evidence to support that account.

JAYCEES RESHAPE PRO TOUR

What is known is that the PGA was exceedingly grateful to the St. Paul Jaycees for coming up with the then-novel idea of a midsummer professional tournament with a big payout. The pros were used to competing in winter tournaments in warm-weather locations, but the summers were generally reserved for their club jobs and major championships.

“The gentlemen who conducted this tournament have done more for the professional golfer than they had done for them in many years,” said Albert Gates, the head of the PGA. “The idea of a money tournament in the summer is entirely new, and these gentlemen conceived it. … We will see that their tournaments in the future are always well-attended above all the others.”

Gates’ promise was upheld. The St. Paul Open lasted at Keller until 1967, attracting every big-name player in the game, including Sam Snead (winner in 1937), Byron Nelson, Ben Hogan, Arnold Palmer, Gary Player and Jack Nicklaus. Local stars also played the event, including amateur champ Jimmy Johnston, Bolstad, Pat and Dick Sawyer, Joe Coria, Neil Croonquist, Wally Mund, Al Clasen and Jock Hendry. No local player ever won the tournament, but Dick Sawyer tied for third in 1935 and fourth in 1937, and Coria tied Hogan for fourth in 1941.

Along the way, Keller was also the site of national championships, beginning with the 1931 Public Links, won by San Francisco riveter Charles Ferrara. In 1932, the PGA staged its championship at Keller, captured by Californian Olin Dutra, who prevailed over the likes of Hagen, Sarazen, Armour and Cooper. The Western Open was still considered one of the season’s most important championships when it was played at Keller in 1949 and won by Snead with a record 20-under-par total of 268.

Snead’s dismantling of Keller was a signal that the pros were beginning to outgrow the Maplewood course. Coates — who also designed Goodrich Golf Course, the first nine holes at Hastings Country Club, the second nine at Stillwater Country Club, Pebble Lake in Fergus Falls and three new holes at Midland Hills — was brought back to toughen up Keller for the 1954 PGA Championship, won by Chick Harbert. Because the PGA still was being played in a match-play format at that time, it was hard to tell if the course was more challenging.

GOODBYE, PGA TOUR PROS

But when Mike Souchak set the St. Paul Open record of 25 under par in 1958, it was clear that Keller’s days as a professional tournament venue were nearing an end. The 1959 PGA Championship was played at Minneapolis Golf Club, rather than at Keller, and plans to build Hazeltine National Golf Club — now the state’s primary championship venue — already were underway.

There was one more big-time battle at Keller, however. In 1965, Nicklaus and Palmer were at the height of their rivalry, and they drew enormous crowds to the 36-year-old Maplewood course. As often happened, however, neither of the two superstars prevailed; instead, 22-year-old Raymond Floyd won his second tournament, shooting a 14-under-par total to beat Tommy Aaron and Gene Littler by four shots.

Palmer and Nicklaus stopped coming to St. Paul after that, and the fields that had once been so star-studded became lackluster. The St. Paul Open changed its name to the Minneapolis Golf Classic in 1967 and was played at Hazeltine, where Lou Graham’s winning score was just 2 under par. After another year at Keller and one more at Braemar in Edina, the tournament called it quits. But Keller was not through hosting the pros. From 1973 to 1980, Keller was the site of the LPGA Tour’s Patty Berg Classic. The event had a string of impressive winners, including JoAnne Carner, Kathy Whitworth and Beth Daniel.

Once the Patty Berg Classic folded, Keller reverted to its original mission statement: a top-notch municipal course. Yet time and budget restraints were not kind to the course, and over the years some of the shortcomings of the Coates design began to become evident. A renovation was attempted in 1995, which included rebuilding some greens, tees and bunkers, but the course was tired by the time it turned 80.

In addition, the clubhouse was run-down. It was determined that there was nothing that could or should be saved from the interior, except the original stone fireplace, in which a plaque dedicated to Keller had been mounted at the time of the course’s opening. That plaque remains and reads, in part: “His foresight and civic pride made it possible for his fellow men to enjoy the recreation afforded by this wonderful playground.”

Keller’s foresight remains acute after all these years. His wonderful playground is back and better than ever.

Rick Shefchik is a freelance writer and author of three books on Minnesota golf history, including “From Fields to Fairways: Classic Golf Clubs of Minnesota.” A Pioneer Press reporter and columnist from 1980-2006, he also has written four novels.

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